


Arrangement

by SolosOrca



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Arranged Marriage, M/M, Royalty AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 00:19:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10819773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolosOrca/pseuds/SolosOrca
Summary: He’d known he was marrying him since he’s been two years old.





	Arrangement

He’d known he was marrying him since he’s been two years old. It had been drilled into him all through his childhood that somewhere, in the country of Tenisu, was his fiance -probably having the same thing drilled into him too.

It had been an unusual situation. To formalise a treaty between Tenisu and Seigaku, the second child of Tenisu would marry the eldest of Seigaku, at the time, no one had stopped to consider that the two children could be the same gender. So, when both had been born boys, the treaty had been scrutinised. But gender hadn’t ever been mentioned in it, so it still stood.

Tezuka had tried to imagine his fiance, based off of the old oil painting he’d been sent for his seventh birthday. But it was hard as the years went on to work out what he look like based off the small picture of the five year old prince.

As a young teen, Tezuka had put his friends’ personalities into his fiance’s body, wondering which was the most like the actual boy he was going to marry. He imagined what they’d talk about in each scenario, how he’d get him to like him.

For his seventeenth birthday, Tezuka had received a large portrait of Prince Ryoma. He stared determinedly out the picture, dressed in fine clothes with one hand on his sword. Tezuka was captivated by his eyes; large and golden brown. He was so handsome that Tezuka’s heart skipped a beat.

With the portrait came a letter stating that Prince Ryoma would be travelling to Seigaku on his eighteenth birthday to marry Tezuka. Tezuka’s stomach had clenched at that -in just over two years, he would be married to a person he’d never met before.

Before, it had been an abstract idea, that one day he’d marry Prince Ryoma, but now he had a date it was much more solid. Much more worrying.

He decided he had to be a good husband. The other prince was giving up everything to marry him for a political alliance, Tezuka had to make it worth it for him.

Fuji had laughed at him when he’d brought up sex.

“How can you not know anything about that?” He’d asked as he wiped away his tears. “There are plenty of books in the library if you know where to look.”

Tezuka hadn’t bought it up again, not wanting to feel humiliated again. He had found the books Fuji had been talking about somehow managed to find their way into his bedroom, but his face burnt as he read them and he found it impossible to get passed the first few pages.

It seemed that now he knew he was getting married soon the years started to fly by and he felt woefully under prepared.

And then, Prince Ryoma had arrived.

Tradition stated that the pair were not allowed to see each other till their wedding day and Tezuka wondered who had created such a dumb tradition. He wanted to meet the prince, get to know him even a little before they were bound together.

He walked listlessly through the corridors the day before his wedding. He knew exactly where Prince Ryoma was in the east wing of the castle, his presence pressing down on Tezuka. He wanted to see him. Needed to see him.

He knew the secret passageways of the castle, better than anyone except maybe Fuji, they’d spent their childhoods chasing each other through them.

No one paid him any attention as he slipped through the corridors, all too busy preparing for the grand wedding the next day.The small, purple drawing room had a door behind a tapestry that linked up various bricked in staircases and corridors and lead into the east wing. Prince Ryoma would be in what was known as the East Blue Room, as it was easily the biggest and most fancy room in the east wing.

The secret passageway wouldn’t take him all the way to the bedroom, but it would be close enough that, with some luck, he could find a way into the room.

He emerged from the secret passageway to find the corridors bizarrely empty. He only had to duck behind one statue to avoid one of the palace guards and then he was in front of his fiance’s door.

He knocked and waited, ears straining for the first sound of his betrothed voice.

“What?” The voice sounded tired and grumpy.

“I want to talk to you,” Tezuka replied, keeping his voice as quiet as possible. He wished he’d said something less teacher-y as soon as the words left his mouth.

Footsteps padded towards him and the door flew open to reveal Prince Ryoma, dressed very informally in a shirt that showed off a lot of his chest. He was a lot smaller than Tezuka expected, he’d always imagined that Prince Ryoma would be as tall as he was, able to look him straight in the eye, he’d never pictured him to come up to somewhere in the middle of Tezuka’s chest.

Tezuka felt the blush rising up his neck and onto his cheeks. He wasn’t good at meeting new people to begin with and it was hitting him just how little he know about the other prince.

Prince Ryoma looked him up and down and then pulled him into the room and slammed the door behind him.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said, his lips twisted into a smirk.

“I-” Tezuka started, the words catching in his throat. Ryoma grinned and sauntered over to the bed, where a large, fluffy cat was waiting.

“This is Karupin,” Ryoma said without waiting for Tezuka to get his words out. “He’ll be staying with us.”

Tezuka looked at the cat, who stared back with steady blue eyes that Tezuka couldn’t read at all. He’d never been around cats, his family owning lots of large dogs instead. It was quite weird to meet a pet that didn’t bounce up to him to lick his face.

“Staying with us?” He asked.

“We’re staying in the same room, right? Once we’re married,” Ryoma clarified,

“You can have your own room,” Tezuka replied. He’d always assumed they’d be in different rooms -at least at the start. “Other than after the ceremony, of course.”

Tradition also stated that the newly wed couple would be locked in their suit of rooms together for several days to conceive their first child. Tezuka had hoped that he and Ryoma would forgo this, but his father had clapped him on the shoulder and told him to use it as time to get to know his new husband. It was a good idea, but what if they hated each other? Maybe it would be better not to know each other at all, just put on a public facade.

Ryoma was looking him up and down, a small smirk on his lips. “Want to practice for that bit?” he asked.

It took Tezuka a few moments to work out what he was talking about and then his brain caught up. “I just came to say hello,” he said quickly, his heart pounding out of control as he considered, just for a second, having sex with Ryoma right now, right here. They would get in so much trouble if they were caught. That shouldn’t sound as tempting as did, especially with Ryoma’s gaze pinning him to the wall.

Ryoma shrugged and ruffled Karupin’s fur. “Thought it was worth a try,” he said. “I wanna do something that isn’t ‘my duty to my country’.”

“Surely you could come up with something better than having sex with me,” Tezuka reminded him.

“You broke the rules first,” Ryoma smirked, leaning back and his shirt slipping to reveal more of his chest.

“I should go,” Tezuka said, his mouth suddenly very dry.

“You’ve only just got here.”

“I know, but as you said, this is against the rules.”

Ryoma sighed through his nose and got to his feet. “Fine, but do one thing for me.”

“Anything,” Tezuka replied.

Ryoma kissed him.

It was soft and warm, like he had imagined it but so much more. The world fell away, just leaving the two of them, kissing. His hands grabbed the hem of Ryoma’s shirt, to prevent himself from falling away with it, as if Ryoma were the only stable point in the universe.

“This is going to work,” Ryoma breathed against his lips when they’d parted before pressing them together again, this time with just a hint of tongue.

And then he was gone, leaving Tezuka to flounder in the void.

“I’ll see you down the aisle,” Ryoma said. “Don’t get caught on your way back.”

When he got back to his room, Tezuka dug out all the books Fuji had hid there and started to read furiously.


End file.
